Farmer's Market West Fargo ND

Local resource for farmer’s market in West Fargo. Includes detailed information on local businesses that provide access to local produce and organic food, as well as advice and content on healthy eating.

Agriculture Shock

The simple act of planting a seed and watching it grow has degraded into bizarre synthetic agriculture based on chemical pesticides and fertilizers. More disturbing still are the so-called genetically modified “Frankenfoods” that further distance fruits and vegetables from nature. But most distressing of all, chemical agriculture’s crops may contain significantly less nutrition than you think.

By Eric Schneider

November 2007

When thinking of agriculture, it’s easy to imagine the scene of a farmer in a sunlit field or Johnny Appleseed planting a future orchard. However romantic, these notions touch on the inherent simplicity of farming, which—at its most basic—involves people working with nature to produce food beyond their immediate needs. What doesn’t come to mind are planes dropping clouds of chemicals on an expanse of crops or scientists working to modify plant genes. But, increasingly, these are common aspects of modern agriculture.

Natural farming methods served the world well for thousands of years. But while the Industrial Revolution brought about exponential innovation and vastly greater yields, in the last half of the 20th century even these strides seemed insufficient in the face of surging population and an insatiable desire for productivity above all else. This quest for ever-higher yields initially focused on deterring crop-eating animals and insects, ultimately leading to many decidedly non-organic tactics.

The elder statesmen of unnatural agricultural practices, chemical pesticides came into prominence during the 1940s. Though pesticides were generally quite effective in exterminating harmful insects, it was discovered that they also left behind compounds that poisoned the environment. This issue was publicly exposed in writer/biologist Rachel Carson’s renowned 1962 book, Silent Spring, which led to the widespread banning of the synthetic DDT and essentially jump-started the environmental movement. But pesticide use has continued (and even increased) since that time, resulting in depletion of nutrients in the soil—which, in turn, means less nutrients in crops—as well as chemical residues that remain in produce. While the Environ­mental Protection Agency (EPA) sets limits on pesticides, the trace amounts allowed in many foods can still be linked directly to illnesses such as cancer and Parkinson’s disease. In a 2005 report published by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a disturbing 73% of fresh fruit and vegetables tested showed detectable pesticide residues.

Frankenfood Future? Concern about pesticides not only brought about increased environmental awareness, it prompted a shift towards organic food, particularly in recent years. Generally overlapping with this period, however, has been the rise of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the result of scientists altering the structure of plants to obtain a specific immunity or trait rather than ach...

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